BAY COUNTY
County Profile:
1999 population 150,524.
Twenty-five percent of the population is below 150
percent of the federal poverty level. The major city is
Panama City.
Health Care Access:
According to Medical
Quality Assurance, in 1999, Bay County had 250 medical
doctors, 12 osteopathic physicians, 65 dentists, and
2,153 nurses actively licensed.
Status of Volunteer
Efforts:
The Bay Medical
Society BayCares program is a volunteer health
care effort by physicians who offer free medical
treatment for qualifying indigent patients. This care is
offered in their private offices or hospitals, and is
primarily a specialty care program. BayCares has
progressively grown since December of 1992. The
coordinator has increased services to include surrounding
counties whose uninsured, low-income residents have no
access to health care. There is a new program of donated
medications being distributed to Bay Cares patients by a
volunteer pharmacist.
Other health care
volunteer programs include: Lions Club that
provides glasses to needy school children; the Catholic
Social Services, Salvation Army and Senior
Adult Day Center all have volunteers who, by
providing food and shelter, offer a modicum of health
care; and the Pregnancy Center offers free
pregnancy testing and counseling services. Dr. Ivan
Backerman has volunteered his services one-day per month
to provide Colposcopy and biopsy for patients with Class
III Pap or multiple Class II Pap Smears. The Bay
County Cooperative Extension Service provides an
average of 5-6 hours per month of applied nutrition
education classes to the health department clients
through the Family Nutrition Program grant. Early in the
year, the Salvation Army Corrections Department,
an agent of the Bay County Court, provided community
service workers to the health department to provide basic
clerical and custodial services. The Department of
Labor also provided unemployed WAGES trainees for the
purpose of learning needed skills to become successful in
the salaried market while assisting the health department
with clerical and custodial services.
Volunteers
are important in helping to improve the health of persons
in Bay County.
Licensed health professionals
- Provide care in their own offices through the Bay
Cares program sponsored by the Bay County Medical
Society. Bay Cares provides free specialty medical care
for qualified indigent adults.
Contact: Ms. Duke George (850)
872-4720 X 127, Suncom 777-4720 X 127
Non-medical personnel -
University student interns gain job skills at the
Health Department in the Family Planning program, Healthy
Start program, and the clinic. Volunteers serve in the
HIV/AIDS test site, Healthy Start Coalition, and the
Tobacco Free Partnership. Community service workers from
Corrections are used as basic clerical help and not in
direct contact in client service areas.
Contact: Cecil Golden (850)
872-4720 X 213, Suncom 777-4720 X 213
|